Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire news, theories, and other nerdy goodness

Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth) has been quite busy promoting Game of Thrones Season 6. In a new interview with IGN he promises plenty of “death and destruction” and says “the guillotine swings quite heavily” this year. He also discusses new character alliances, the pressing threat facing Westeros, and starting the journey toward the end of the series. Read the entire interview here.

Game of Thrones’ Showrunners Considering Shortened Runs for Seasons 7 and 8

Speaking of the end of the series, creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss speculate to Variety that the final two seasons may be shorter than the standard 10 episodes we’ve enjoyed thus far. “I think we’re down to our final 13 episodes after this season. We’re heading into the final lap,” Benioff is quoted as saying. “That’s the guess, though nothing is yet set in stone, but that’s what we’re looking at.”

Although those numbers were later clarified as being “premature,” it’s likely that we won’t get 2 more full seasons. Benioff and Weiss said that producing 10 full episodes given the scope of the show is becoming problematic.

While I definitely don’t want to see this happen (10 hours per season never seems like enough to me), I also don’t want the quality of the show to suffer, or the ending to drag out longer than necessary just to fill a quota. That being said, the already incredibly long offseason would be even longer. Thankfully there will be plenty of filming news/leaks/speculation to hold us over…

Benioff and Weiss Despise Spoilers

Of course, if the showrunners had their way, they would keep us in the dark as much as possible. EW reports that the Game of Thrones creators go to great lengths to keep things under wraps and preserve the element of surprise for the fans. Dan Weiss believes “any sane person would admit that knowing this stuff in advance lessens the experience of watching it, and yet people are really hungry to find out things that that will make something they presumably like worse for them. So I don’t totally get it.”

David Benioff agrees. He insinuates that while people sneakily capturing pictures during filming are crazy, the spoiler seekers are crazier. “The idea that people want to go to sites and find out those spoilers … it’s like if there was a website called Last Pages of Great Books, would you read that?”

My personal belief is that every care should be taken not to inadvertently spoil anything unless someone is specifically looking for it. During the waits between book releases and during the show offseason, I search for every bit of news I can find. If there are a few spoilers, it doesn’t ruin anything for me – a good story doesn’t become less enjoyable even if you know how it ends.

I love the guessing and speculation that comes with spoiler territory. If anything, it heightens my excitement for what’s to come.